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Warhammer 40k:Administrators
Administrators are vital to the smooth running of any wiki project and the Warhammer 40k Wiki is no different; in fact, it is more dependent upon them than most wikis. But the role, responsibilities and privileges of Administrators should be clearly defined for transparency within the project and so all parties involved know what is expected. This policy outlines the part Administrators play on the Warhammer 40k Wiki. Active Administrators Lead Administrator/Bureaucrat *Montonius (since May 2010) Associate Administrators *Algrim Whitefang (since June 2012) *Shas'o'Kais (since April 2014) *SwordofRome (since August 2010, currently on hiatus) Wiki Moderators *Vforvendetta1 *Vo0DoO40k What is an Administrator? Administrators and Moderators are members of the community who have been leaders on the site with regards to quality and quantity of edits. The role of administrators is one of leadership and authority, intended to maintain site-wide consistency in terms of formatting and style. Currently, the Warhammer 40k Wiki has two fully active Administrators, Associate Administrator Algrim Whitefang, and Administrator Shas'o'Kais. Lead Administrator Montonius, who is also the founder of the new version of the wiki and currently on a hiatus, is in overall charge of the wiki and all of its functions. Administratorship is only granted to those editors who have proven that they are committed to upholding the admittedly extremely high standards of the wiki for content, spelling and grammar and have proven this committment by making literally tens of thousands of edits across many months or even years before being selected. Additionally, unlike on many other wikis, Administrators possess full authority to remove or change articles for content or because the Wiki's content standards have been violated. An Associate Administrator's word is expected to be followed by other editors on the Warhammer 40k Wiki, and the Lead Administrator is the final judge in cases where there is not a clear preference for a particular policy or change of policy among the other Administrators and the community of editors at large. This change has been made from the standard wiki policy to ensure that our unusually high standards for articles can be met with a consistency and a quickness that is hard to achieve using the typical, less hierarchical method of wiki governance that currently dominates. When more Associate Administrators are created as the wiki grows, their names will be posted above for easy reference and identification. An Administrator or Moderator is... *here to oversee the project to prevent vandalism, abuse or straying from the goals and guidelines intended to one day make the Warhammer 40k Wiki the most definitive and well-written source of information on the Warhammer 40,000 universe on the Internet. *extremely enthusiastic about the project, its overarching goals and wants to see it succeed. That means he wants you to try and place the quality of the wiki over your own desires for recognition or retribution for perceived wrongs by other editors, Moderators or Administrators. *here to help you. Generally Administrators, and to a lesser extent Moderators, have advanced expertise or experience with this or other wiki projects and have been chosen in part because of their near-encyclopedic knowledge of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are valuable teachers and mentors for all editors, including each other. An Administrator or Moderator is not... *above the law. Administrators and Moderators must adhere to official Warhammer 40k Wiki policy just like everyone else. *always right. Administrators and Moderators are people with opinions just like everyone else and occasionally they can be as in the wrong as everybody else. If you believe that to be the case, please make your point to them in a reasonable and mature way. An Administrator or Moderator may not agree with your point of view, and the final decision usually will rest in his hands and should be respected, but that does not mean he will not take your point of view into account when trying to make decisions that benefit the entire community. However, when an editor and a Moderator or Administrator's opinion on a topic clash, ultimately an Administrator will have to make the call. Editors are expected to respect an Administrator's or Moderator's decision, though it is an Administrator's or Moderator's responsibility to explain the reasons for his decision clearly and forthrightly if it comes into question by a significant spectrum of the community. Administrators and Moderators have more privileges than most members, but with this extra access comes increased responsibility to the community of editors. It is important to remember that Administrators and Moderators are here solely to make the Warhammer 40k Wiki the highest-quality source of information on the Warhammer 40,000 universe in English that it is possible to create. While Administrators and Moderators might spend a larger portion of their time making structural edits or step in to settle a dispute and get the wiki back on the track of progress, it is important to remember that their role is defined by the policies put in place to ensure that decisions are made ultimately only to produce higher quality for the Wiki at large, and thus better serve its users. Responsibilities Administrators are responsible for the following: *Ensuring the project stays true to its goals and guidelines, as determined by Wiki policy *Overseeing maintenance and upkeep of the site both aesthetically and functionally and checking in with the site at least once every other day *Being a leader in the community, both as a teacher, quality control expert and initiator of new projects *Leading discussions on the running and growth of the wiki *Being accessible by Talk Page to any user who wishes to contact them and responding in an appropriately prompt time frame (approximately 1-2 days) *Being willing to set aside content editing to make structural or institutional changes to the site when required *Being willing to do clean-up duty on edits that do not meet the wiki's quality standards as necessity requires Moderators are responsible for the following: *Ensuring the project stays true to its goals and guidelines, as determined by Wiki policy *Overseeing maintenance and upkeep of the site both aesthetically and functionally and checking in with the site at least once a week but preferably more often *Being a leader in the community, both as a teacher, quality control expert and initiator of new projects with Administrator agreement and guidance *Being willing to do clean-up duty on edits that do not meet the wiki's quality standards as necessity requires *Recommending articles of sub-par quality for deletion to the Administrators *Recommending sanctions be taken by the Administrators against editors who violate Wiki policy *Providing recommendations to the Administrators on any topic they believe will improve the Wiki content *Overseeing the wiki's forums and chat rooms and eliminating those posts that violate Wiki policy *Recommending sanctions be taken by the Administrators against forum or chat room participants who violate Wiki policy Privileges All Administrators have the following privileges not awarded to standard editors: *Ability to delete and undelete pages *Ability to edit the basic framework of the site *Ability to protect and unprotect pages and edit pages which are sysop protected *Ability to make final decisions on all wiki pages layout and content *Ability to temporarily or permanently ban any registered editor or anonymous user who eggregiously violates Wiki standards after a warning or Wiki policy on Talk Page harassment, trolling, vandalism or the use of inappropriate language *Ability to determine what art will be allowed on the site; this includes the sole right to determine which fan-made artwork may be used in extraordinary circumstances *Right to have any editor who disrespects their requests or person be sanctioned up to and including a permanent ban All Moderators have the following privileges not awarded to standard editors: *Ability to recommend that sanctions be taken by the Administrators against editors who violate Wiki policy *Ability to provide recommendations to the Administrators on any topic they believe will improve the Wiki content *Ability to oversee the wiki's forums and chat rooms and eliminate those posts that violate Wiki policy *Ability to recommend sanctions be taken by the Administrators against forum or chat room participants who violate Wiki policy *Ability to order any editor to make changes to a page to conform with Wiki policy and quality standards and to make any change to any page, subject to Administrator oversight. *Right to have any editor who disrespects their requests or person be sanctioned by an Administrator up to and including a permanent ban Raising a new Associate Administrator There is no hard and fast rule to determine the right number of Administrators for a project. Because users, even Administrators, have periods of inactivity, it is important to have enough Administrators to cover the workload at any given time. Because the site will continue to grow and because Administrators may drift away from the project, there is a process in place to ensure that new Associate Administrators can be added at any time to fill a need. To be considered for Associate Administratorship, an editor must be a registered user who has contributed to meeting the wiki's goals of high standards and depth of information according to all of the wiki's regulations and policies over the course of many thousands of edits. No one with less than 10,000 legitimate edits will even be considered for promotion to an Associate Administratorship. Once an editor is being considered for potential promotion, he or she will be raised by the Lead Administrator to the position of Wiki Moderator, which carries some, but not all, of the privileges of an Associate Administrator. Additionally, the prospective new Administrator must be able to work well with the existing Administrators and Wiki Moderators and show the capability to help new editors learn how to uphold the stringent standards of the wiki and how to improve the overall quality of the wiki, as laid out in our standards, policies and procedures. To be selected, a candidate for Associate Administratorship must earn a majority vote from the existing Administrators, with the Lead Administrator possessing two votes, or casting the deciding vote in the event of a tie. Lead Administrator The position of Lead Aministrator (officially known as Bureaucrat in wikia.com's hierarchy) is granted to that Associate Administrator who is most committed to the Warhammer 40k Wiki's current vision of absolute quality and has consistently shown this dedication through many pages of quality edits and the addition of whole blocks of new knowledge to the wiki. While technically granted no more privileges than any other Administrator save for a double vote when choosing a new Associate Administrator, the Lead Administrator does formally grant Administrator privileges to other users and can also make them Bureaucrats, whose staus cannot be revoked save by themselves. The Lead Administrator is chosen for both an expansive knowledge of how to manipulate the wiki framework and an encyclopedic familiarity with the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The Lead Administrator represents the wiki to all other outside individuals and organisations and ultimately does his best to try and elucidate a clear vision for the wiki so that other Administrators and editors can know where best to invest their efforts. When there is a conflict in policy or decisions about the wiki's welfare between Administrators, the Lead Administrator will make the decision by fiat if there is no clear Administrator consensus. In the event of the retirement of the Lead Administrator, he will nominate his successor from among the existing Associate Administrators, who will then be selected by a majority vote of his fellows.